Boston's climate resiliency efforts center community feedback and priorities

Ariel view of Martin's Park in near Boston's Fort Point Channel. — Located in the Seaport along the Fort Point Channel, the City constructed Martin’s Park in 2019. The park includes protective measures against future flooding, including raising portions of the park and installing mini piles and vegetated beds to prevent erosion at higher tides.

Diego Lopez is the senior radio producer for GBH’s All Things Considered. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Diego at diego_lopez@wgbh.org.

Arun Rath hosts the local broadcast of GBH’s All Things Considered.

August 24, 2023

Rath: This is GBH is All Things Considered. I'm Arun Rath. We have seen a lot of extreme weather this summer. Just over the course of this past July, which scientists say was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, the U.S. has dealt with intense wildfire smoke in cities, a blistering heat wave in the Southwest and, of course, the destructive flooding that damaged thousands of homes and businesses throughout Vermont and Western Massachusetts. With climate change's deadly impacts already upon us, it's easy to be concerned about the resiliency and future of a city like Boston, which appears particularly at risk from the threat posed by rising sea levels and more frequent, powerful storms. With me now to discuss Boston's climate change resiliency efforts is Hannah Wagner, a climate resiliency project manager at the city of Boston's environment department. Hannah, thanks for joining us.

Wagner: Thank you for having me.

Rath: So I mentioned the rising sea levels and stronger storms. Can you give us more detail about some of the anticipated effects of climate change on Boston?

Wagner: So here at the city of Boston in the environment department, we have an initiative called Climate Ready Boston, which is really the way that we are working to develop resilient solutions to prepare the city for the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, extreme heat and other extreme weather events. And so just as you said, one of the things that we're really focused on here is sea level rise and coastal flooding caused both by just general sea level rise and also more frequent and intense coastal storm events.

And so when we think about future climate impacts, we have seen over the entire 20th century that sea levels rose about 9 inches relative to the existing level. And by 2050, sea levels may be as much as 1.5 feet higher than they were in 2000. And by 2070, they may be as much as 3 feet higher than in 2000.

Rath: Let's talk a bit more about flooding in particular. Tell us about the areas of the city that are particularly vulnerable and what's being done in your efforts right now. What are you struggling to keep up with, and how are you doing it?

Wagner: So as of 2022, we have completed plans for coastal resilience for Boston's entire 47-mile coastline. We've really focused on taking a neighborhood-level approach and done a neighborhood by neighborhood planning process to figure out ways that we can manage coastal flooding and its impacts in the future. So Boston has what we group in to five coastal neighborhoods; those are East Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, downtown and the North End, and South Boston. When we're thinking about future sea level rise and coastal flooding impacts, we're really seeing projected impacts across all of those five coastal neighborhoods.

Rath: It's kind of disturbing to think about all the things or some of the aspects that made a great city a great city, meaning access to the water, to commerce and things like that, really open up all these vulnerabilities.

Wagner: Yeah, it's interesting in a city like Boston, in particular, where we have so much low-lying land, and that's in part because of how the city developed and grew. So if you look at a historic map of the city's coastline, you can see that the historic coastline was really located much further inland than today's coastline is. This is because the city created new space for buildings and waterfront structures — just as you're saying, the things that make the city great about being on the water — by filling in low-lying areas. Because this filled land is at a lower elevation than the surrounding areas that were once islands or more upland areas, many of our coastal neighborhoods are really now vulnerable to coastal flooding in these filled areas. That's because when coastal storms and extreme high tides occur, water naturally flows to those lowest-lying areas. So we have a particular challenge in really trying to adapt, protect and make resilient the neighborhoods and the coastal neighborhoods that really make the city what it is and make it a great city.

Rath: You know, we're seeing farther down south, along the along the eastern seaboard, how the rising sea levels are changing the map, almost year by year. Are there areas in Boston or in the vicinity that we're going to have to give up on at some point?

Wagner: We're really not there yet. It might be that that's part of a conversation in the future, but for now, the solutions that we are proposing in our coastal resilience neighborhood plans really are focused on protecting and adapting the shoreline as it is, and in some cases fortifying it, improving it, adding additional benefits, and really making our coastal resilience investments have more than just a coastal resilience benefit. So trying to use these coastal resilience projects as a way to improve the city and provide additional recreational benefits like says, access to the waterfront or recreation or transportation benefits rather than having more of a sacrificial approach where we have a waterfront park that we anticipate is just going to flood in the future. We're really trying to improve and protect the city as much as we can.

Rath: As you've been doing the first phase of this, what have you learned about how we adapt to climate change and how that might apply to, I guess, what might be the next phase of this?

Wagner: Yeah, it's a great question. So as you said, we really know that climate change presents significant risks to the city both today and in the coming years. And we really know that these risks, while being complex, are addressable. So the vision that we've really focused on in Boston is not just about pure risk reduction by whatever means, but really about leveraging the challenge of climate resilience to deliver on a wide range of community priorities that really reflect the role of cities in people's lives.

So, when it comes to infrastructure planning, we're focused on designing and building projects that meet multiple needs: so flood barriers that can serve as waterfront parks and public roads, and ports that really support tourism and commerce. So we're really trying to focus on prioritizing multi-benefit resilience strategies.

What we found through our planning processes today and our work to date is that community members and residents really see the value of this. They're focused on this. They're excited about these projects. They want to see projects that provide not only flood protection or relief from extreme heat, but also provide either improved transportation benefits or increased access to the waterfront or open space. There's really an opportunity here to work together within communities and both provide risk reduction and resilience to climate change, but also additional benefits as we go.

Rath: You just talked about how community involvement is a huge part of these efforts. What are some of the ways we've seen that actually happening locally?

Wagner: So the city has done a lot of work to redesign and improve Moakley Park in the South Boston and Dorchester area. One of the hallmarks of this redesign of the park has been really strong community involvement and a really robust community engagement process that the parks department has done. This is a really good example of a redesign of a city space that provides not only coastal resilience protection in the future, but also improved recreational benefits, stormwater management and things in the park that really reflect what the community wants to see. So Moakley Park is a really interesting area because it's in a future flood pathway. What that means is that in the future, like in the year 2070, in a big coastal storm event — like a 1% annual chance storm event — floodwaters could come in through that area and directly impact about 35,000 people in inland areas. That includes two Boston Housing Authority buildings that are directly adjacent to Moakley Park. So through this planning process and this redesign of the park process, there's been a really good, robust community involvement from residents in the area and folks in South Boston and Dorchester who are very invested in this park and who want to see improvements to the park in addition to coastal resilience protection that are going to both protect their homes and allow the park to be a really important community asset moving forward. So I'm really excited about a lot of the work that's going on in Moakley Park and we can't wait to get that built and ready to go.

Rath: Brilliant, Hannah. It's been great hearing about this. Thank you.

Wagner: Thank you so much for having me.

Rath: That's Hannah Wagner, a climate resilience project manager at the city of Boston's environment department. This is GBH's All Things Considered.

There has been a lot of extreme weather this summer. In July alone, which scientists say was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, the United States dealt with intense wildfire smoke in multiple cities, a blistering heat wave in the Southwest, and the destructive flooding that damaged thousands of homes and businesses throughout Vermont and Western Massachusetts.

With climate change's deadly impacts already upon us, it's easy to be concerned about the resiliency and future of a city like Boston, which appears particularly at risk from the threat posed by rising sea levels and more frequent, powerful storms. To address these challenges, the city produced a report in 2016, which later evolved into Climate Ready Boston, an initiative meant to prepare the city for the impacts of climate change.

Hannah Wagner, a climate resiliency project manager for the city's environment department, says a primary concern of the initiative has been to address flooding concerns brought on by both rising sea levels and more intense coastal storm events.

"As of 2022, we have completed plans for coastal resilience for Boston's entire 47-mile coastline," Wagner told GBH's All Things Considered. "We've really focused on taking a neighborhood-level approach and done a neighborhood by neighborhood planning process to figure out ways that we can manage coastal flooding and its impacts in the future."

Those estimated impacts have potential for a lot of damage to the city's low-lying neighborhoods. According to Wagner, over the course of the 20th century, sea levels rose about 9 inches relative to the previous levels. By 2050, sea levels may be as much as 1.5 feet higher than they were in 2000, and by 2070, they may be as much as 3 feet higher than in 2000.

Arial view of recently completed reconstruction of the North End's Lagone Park. — January 2021 marked the completion of a comprehensive reconstruction and upgrade of this park on the waterfront in the North End. The park is designed with climate resilient features to protect the shoreline, the neighborhood, and other public assets from projected sea level rise and increased storm events.

Wagner says the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods, and the focus of much of Climate Ready Boston's resiliency efforts, are the coastal neighborhoods of East Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Downtown, the North End and South Boston. Part of this is due to the city's history of landfill infrastructure projects that pushed the Boston's waterfront further out into the sea.

"Because this filled land is at a lower elevation than the surrounding areas that were once islands or more upland areas, many of our coastal neighborhoods are now vulnerable to coastal flooding in these filled areas," she said. "That's because when coastal storms and extreme high tides occur, water naturally flows to those lowest lying areas. So we have a particular challenge in trying to adapt, protect and make resilient the coastal neighborhoods that really make the city what it is."

One of the most critical aspects of these resiliency efforts has been community involvement. With this valuable feedback, plans for coastal resilience investments have gone beyond protecting the land from flooding, but also include measures for additional amenities.

Image showing a bird's eye view rendering of future Moakley Park improvements. — A proposed redesign of Moakley Park in South Boston.

Wagner pointed to the redesign process of Moakley Park in the South Boston and Dorchester area as an example of climate resiliency and community priorities coming together. The park's redesign not only addressed critically needed stormwater management systems, but also improved the park's recreational areas.

Wagner said residents appreciate the value in that multi-factored approach.

"They're excited about these projects and they want to see projects that provide not only flood protection or relief from extreme heat, but also provide either improved transportation benefits or increased access to the waterfront or open space," she said. "There's really an opportunity here to work together within communities and both provide risk reduction and resilience to climate change, but also additional benefits as we go."

Diego Lopez is the senior radio producer for GBH’s All Things Considered. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Diego at diego_lopez@wgbh.org.